Particular Person, Organization, or Group,

¶ … particular person, organization, or group, instead of looking at an industry or larger collective of individuals (Cozby, 2009). Case studies are used when it becomes necessary to study someone or a group up close, as opposed to studying a trend occurrence. For example, a researcher could do a research project or dissertation on heart disease, but would do a case study on a particular person who has the disease and what his or her life is like. These two styles of studying something are completely different, and they are used to collect vastly different information. People who do case study research can also do these studies on groups, companies, or organizations, as opposed to just doing them on individual people. A lot of case studies look at a person's history, symptoms, affiliations, and other issues, but they do not have to address these things (Cozby, 2009). One type of case study is called a psychobiography. This is when a researcher takes a case study subject -- generally a single, often historical personal -- and uses psychological theory in an attempt to explain that person's behavior.

This is not the standard case study, but it can be done by some researchers who are very interested in history and also very interested in looking into issues like personality that many other researchers may not have found interesting to study. There are plenty of other ways to address a person as a case study subject, but psychobiography can bring a fascinating twist to the story of a person from the past who has already been studied in other ways. When a researcher undertakes a case study that is to be a psychobiography, a very clear understanding of the psychological theories he or she will be using is required, because the analysis of a person's psyche -- especially based on historical records of a person who has long passed from this life -- is not something for a layperson to undertake. The accuracy of any psychobiography that is not from a knowledgeable person would be very questionable.

Archival research involves the study of work that has already been done. When something is archived, it has been studied, stored, and it part of history (Cozby, 2009). With that in mind, anyone who plans to do archival research should know where to find the information he or she is looking for. Most people use the library for serious archival research, but the Internet also has a lot of archived information. Books, magazines, and journals can all be used in archival research, as can microfiche, museums, personal histories, and other evidentiary information from long ago. Depending on what type of work is being studied, archival research can be relatively recent or go back hundreds of years. This kind of research can be challenging because of the need for primary sources. In other words, while secondary sources can be used for some of the information, it is far better to locate the primary source that is being discussed, verify the information, and use that in the research work.

Depending on where the primary source is located, this can become difficult and time-consuming, stopping a person from completing the research that he or she wished to do. Going to another country to consult a primary source for a dissertation or research paper is often not feasible. Sometimes, copies of a primary source are available online, or they can be faxed or mailed so that they can be examined. When this cannot be done there are two choices: the source can be left out, or secondary sources that discuss the primary source can be used (Cozby, 2009). What type of research is being conducted and how many other sources are being used, along with whether they are primary or secondary, often has a lot to do with what will be done when these kinds of choices are faced. By ensuring that the primary sources are most often used, anyone doing archival research lends strength and credibility to the point that he or she is trying to make. Archival research can shed a lot of new light on old information, but anyone undertaking it should be aware of the difficult and time-consuming nature of the task.

In content analysis, the researcher takes information and examines it in order to draw conclusions for a study (Cozby, 2009). This content can be something that the researcher has collected for that study, or it can be something archival that the researcher has studied and compiled. For example, the content being studied could be the results of a survey that the researcher took, or it could be the information contained in a literature review of what other researchers have already done. Whichever way the researcher decides to go with his study, there are still two basic ways to analyze content: quantitatively and qualitatively (Cozby, 2009). Quantitative analysis is generally statistical. It works with facts and figures so that the researcher can draw conclusions from the data. Qualitative analysis is based more on emotions, feelings, or opinions. Some studies have a mixed-method form of content analysis, depending on what is being studied and what kind of data has been collected.